In
cladistics:
The
descendant
branches from a
node on a
cladogram, the two
species or higher
monophyletictaxon (clades)
which meet at a node; or in other words two
lineages which
diverged from that particular common
ancestor. In a
phylogeny,
the descendants of an ancestor are called "daughters", while the
siblings after a speciation event are
called "sisters" (so a descendant is a daughter relative to its
ancestor and is a sister relative to its other sibling). Note
that if either of the daughters undergoes further
speciation
then the sister to a particular
terminal taxon may actually be a
group of terminal taxa. Because sister groups share a common
ancestor, they are each other's closest
relatives.